Diamond table domination

I took a break for about a decade. When I returned all the Valley tables had been switched to Diamonds. Diamonds don't play "On-System" and you have to adjust. They're fast and the pockets seem tight both mean you can get punished pretty badly.

I think it was a timing thing where they designed an easily manufactured table that they sell at a reasonable price. When it was time for bars to switch to something else, Diamond has financing at $8 a day to put in as many as they could ask for.
 
InsertCleverNameHere said:
In the US, Diamond leads the way by a huge margin. At least when it comes to places that host events and have serious competitions that is.

I for one, wish there were more variance not less. Having said that I recently played a long session on a predator bar table and it was pretty much the worst table I ever played on that didn't have dead rails or was horribly beat up. Angles were so far away from standard and the rails were clearly a 1/16th low or something. Just a bad product.

Brunswick can't be taken seriously for pool rooms in the US when they want 20% more than Diamond. I had the pleasure of playing on a new gold crown at a friends house and it was every bit as good as any diamond but what pool room owner is going to pay 2-3000 more for one? Shame really

Haven't had the pleasure of playing on any Rassons but a few friends whose opinions I value highly have told me they like them.

Gabriels makes awesome tables of all kinds but have yet to break into the US market really for pool tables.

Anyway, yeah it's Diamond's show.
Click to expand...
While i prefer Diamonds, i agree that move variety is a good thing. Competition is good.

Two Stooges in Fridley, MN has Gabriels (Signature, i think) and i agree they're good tables. Only problem i have is the pocket size (5"), but that's a configuration choice. The heavily rounded rail profile is a bit odd too when you can only get your fingertips on it.

Another hall has a bunch of GCs but they're all awful to play on.
Everything else is Diamond in MN except the lil bars.
 
jtompilot said:
Forest City Billiards has three Gabriel’s. They played very well. They are all aluminum without a center beam, let’s see how they play in 10-20 years after the slates sag in the middle. Fargo billiards has Gabriel’s last time I was there 15 years ago. They probably aren’t the aluminum one used today.
Click to expand...
They might even be Granite. Some Gabriels are granite which is pretty wild to me but my lone experience with their pool tables is at Country Retreat Family Billiards in Boone, NC. Owned by @ChrisinNC and let me tell you they are flat out the best rolling tables I've ever played on. You can hit it as slow as you want in all directions and it just will not roll off. Extremely impressive.
 
InsertCleverNameHere said:
They might even be Granite. Some Gabriels are granite which is pretty wild to me but my lone experience with their pool tables is at Country Retreat Family Billiards in Boone, NC. Owned by @ChrisinNC and let me tell you they are flat out the best rolling tables I've ever played on. You can hit it as slow as you want in all directions and it just will not roll off. Extremely impressive.
Click to expand...
Gabriel’s web site says 30 mm slate, 1 or 3 piece.
 
GC3s and 4s (5s?) still dominate the New England area. In fact I have only played on a Diamond one time in my life and it wasn’t here. Maybe it is because there aren’t new pool halls opening.
 
Bottom line is a table is a table, if you improvise, adapt, and over come.

I am sure if some rich person decided to host a $1,000,000.00 added, $100.00 ENTRY ONE POCKET TOURNMENT, open to the TOP 24 ONE POCKET PLAYERs in the World in Arizona in our Community Room. Stipulation would be the event would be played on Gold Crowns, No Self Respecting Great Player would attend because of the Gold CROWNS.................NOT.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sjm
muskyed said:
Didn't reply.
Click to expand...
You spent several thousand dollars on a table that was not installed correctly, sent an email that never got a response, and then did nothing else? Didn't bother calling them? Was it Diamond or a distributor/reseller that installed that table?

I've had two Diamond tables installed by Diamond and have had zero issues. I just find that hard to believe.
 
InsertCleverNameHere said:
They might even be Granite. Some Gabriels are granite which is pretty wild to me but my lone experience with their pool tables is at Country Retreat Family Billiards in Boone, NC. Owned by @ChrisinNC and let me tell you they are flat out the best rolling tables I've ever played on. You can hit it as slow as you want in all directions and it just will not roll off. Extremely impressive.
Click to expand...

gabriels are very good tables. expensive though, or used to be at least, haven't checked recently
 
Unlike Predator and Rassoon, I think Brunswick has a shot at biting into Diamond's marketshare. (ironic!).

About every week on FB I see another room that has just bought 10 or so new GC7's. I just saw one 5 min ago and that's what brought me back to this thread. I never saw any of that with the other two brands.

For so many room owners to buy the new GC7, that means pricing in bulk is much better than individual retail, and it means those room owners WANT something other than Diamond.

Also, unless Diamond has changed in recent years, their price for buying 1 table is the same as 30 tables.
 
Just saw that Matchroom has now partnered with CPBA cloth, so they will no longer be using Simonis cloth for WNT tournaments.

Has anyone played on CPBA cloth? And if so, how does it compare to Simonis 860HR?
 
Kris_b1104 said:
Just saw that Matchroom has now partnered with CPBA cloth, so they will no longer be using Simonis cloth for WNT tournaments.

Has anyone played on CPBA cloth? And if so, how does it compare to Simonis 860HR?
Click to expand...
I wonder if that also means Aramith is going away on MR produced events. (same company)
 
You know what though, I guess it's all good for the game. More sponsors, more money. I don't believe for example Diamond pays any money to be a table at a tournament. Promoters chose it for its easy setup, which saves them lots of time and labor costs. If Rasoon pays a good fee, well that money is what helps MR even make events.

If pool keeps growing, the brands will be fighting with themselves year after year to be the "main brand" of the tour. The sport wins in the end, but maybe the quality of equipment goes down, since the contract will just go to the highest bidder.
 
Kris_b1104 said:
Sad day for pool.
Click to expand...
wtf. 'sad'???? in drama club as a kid?? ;) seriously, we're talking about pool equipment. if MR went CPBA/Dynaspheres would the game somehow be tarnished? please. I've played on both ANDY and CPBA and both played great. Simonis makes great stuff but they don't have some secret cheat code. Championship also makes great cloth. Its from Mexico, is that verboten too??
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top